Hi all. I recently recieved my phone bill, the first time since joining an unmetered/ pay monthly isp. Looking through it I saw that a number of calls were being made to a certain number. I did a search for it on the internet and found that it was a British Telecom isp which I had used before. I thought I had deleted it from the dial-up network, but obviously not. When I checked the properties of my default dial-up, I find that it is not the BT isp, but my pay monthly one. I have checked the box with "always dial default isp" (or whatever it is) in the control panel. How do I find out that I have really deleted the BT isp completely from my computer? Any help would be much appriciated. Beninio
it was a British Telecom isp which I had used before. I thought I had deleted it from the dial-up network, but obviously not.
Simply deleting it from your computer will not cease the service. You must contact them to have them discontinue. As far as they are concerned you are still using them.
Cheers for your reply but the BT one isn't a pay monthly one but one where you pay for all your calls minute by minute. If I haven't dailed to that isp I shouldn't get billed for it.
Sounds like you're on the other side of the Pond. Well it really dosn't seem to matter much anymore. These are "SCAMS" and seem to be spreading. I did some consulting for a local telephone company and was made aware of billing practises that can occur. A great deal of time and money was spent on verifying billing that is assigned to that particular telco. They seem to come from nowhere and the only advise I can give you is to contact your telco and have them resolve it. It is their best interest to do so (they can be sued so they should be happy to work with you).
Thanks again Sonny. I'll ring them tomorrow. BT has a monopoly over here. Many complaints about them, but very little can be done because they own about 95% of the telephone lines.
Shelly, all his calls would be billed by BT, but what he's saying is that these include calls to his old BT ISP dial-up number, which he's not aware of using. We're in pretty much the same boat here.
Until you get it sorted, just left click on the monitors icon that appears in the system tray when you're connected to your ISP, assuming you are using Windows and IE. The pop-up window will indicate where you are connected, among other things. At least you won't be on long if it's still the wrong connection.
Here's a way to make sure you are dialing the correct number every time you connect:
Click on My Computer, and then click on Dial-Up Networking. You'll see a list of Dial-ups that you have configured. If the ISP that you want is the only one showing, then you are OK there.
Now, what I like to do is drag that Dial-up connection to my Desktop, or better yet the Quicklaunch bar. That way I can connect directly to my ISP without launching an application (such as Internet Explorer). Then I can choose the application that I want to use after the connection is completed. Really handy for those times when the connection fails and you have to wait for the app to quit loading before you can retry.
#10. "RE: costly hidden isp?" In response to JP (Reply # 9)
Thanks for the sugestions. Sorry if I didn't make it clear before, but the 24/7 isp does use the BT line (not the BT isp), but because it is an unmetered package I should only be getting billed through it and not be billed by the minute on my phone bill. Not all the calls are being charged, but it seems like random ones are slipping through. In the dial-up box that automatically appears when I click on the IE shortcut the one that I choose to use is my unmetered isp. I don't even have an option to choose the BT one because I had deleted it before.
